Podcasts about no till

Welcome to episode 352 of Growers Daily! We cover: not transferring a certain potato disease from the tubers, solving big problems little-ly, and it's feedback friday, of course. We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 351 of Growers Daily! We cover: why plants can go from good to bad so quickly sometimes, cover cropping in raised beds, and a nightmare straw scenario.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 350 of Growers Daily! We cover: today we're talking coffee! As a coffee drinker and soil nerd myself, I was very excited when I met Patricia Cordero at the OAK conference last month and she told me her area of study was soil conservation in coffee production in Puerto Rico. So, naturally, I asked her to come on and talk a bit about the coffee production and soil there and oh boy is it both very awesome with lots of multispecies plantings among the coffee, and also quite sad with the state of agriculture there and farmers struggling to find the labor they need to keep their farms going. But we talk all things coffee from what makes good coffee beans to the techniques they use for soil conservation and so much more. We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 349 of Growers Daily! We cover: today we're talking air, we discuss speeding up the potatoes, and flailing the fire out of some grass and weeds. Or just a special type of mower. Or both.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 348 of Growers Daily! We cover: growing for green tomatoes (and not the heirloom types) and fats in the compost pile We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 347 of Growers Daily! We cover: some soil blocking alternatives (with a fun AI question attached—you know how that goes with me), saving the soil for the future, and it's feedback friday!  We are a Non-Profit! 

On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, we head inside the 2026 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky., for a look at new equipment and residue management insights from No-Till Innovator Phil Needham. Plus, agronomist Brad Forkner shares some innovative new inputs, including a product called Squid Juice.

Welcome to episode 346 of Growers Daily! We cover: we will put the N in no-till (see what I did there—N? Nitrogen), anyway we will also be keeping basil looking fresh, and talking about what to look for in a software.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 345 of Growers Daily! We cover: we are checking in again with our friends Mikey and Kez down there at five tales farm in Australia to see how the season has treated them so far. February is basically their august, so although things are winding down, they're still cranking and we chat about why they grow what they grow, and they also bring along a surprise topic to ask me at the end.  We are a Non-Profit! 

In today's episode, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, listen to a discussion about Pennsylvania No-Till Pioneer Bill Cannon. You'll hear from 4 different people who were heavily influenced by Bill and worked closely with him before his passing.

No-till soybean systems often push growers to bump seed rates 10 per cent or more to compensate for cooler soils, wetter springs, and heavy residue — but that isn’t always the most efficient way to achieve a strong stand. In this episode of the RealAgriculture Soybean School, University of Guelph researcher Dr. Josh Nasielski and... Read More

Welcome to episode 344 of Growers Daily! We cover: getting hyped for foraging season, we'll talk about what 2025 taught me for 2026, and we'll discuss one of the most important family of tools on the market garden—the rake. We are a Non-Profit! 

Where do you need to go with your farming? Doug Fifer of Fifer Family Farms joins Jeff, Mary, and Eric to talk about his experience and journey with no-till crop farming over the past fifteen years. Doug raises turkeys and cash crops in Mount Solon, Virginia, and is the president of the Virginia No-Till Alliance (VANTAGE).For Doug, his journey with no-till farming began in 2010 when he began questioning where his farm needed to go. As a youth, Doug remembers having to pick up rocks from the field after tilling and cultivating the soil for planting. He and his family eventually sent the moldboard plow to the scrap heap and stopped tilling the soil completely.In Doug's journey, he continues to learn, read, and experiment with vetch and more families of cover crops. He particularly enjoys meeting with and mentoring other farmers, and sharing his experience and lessons learned. One of Doug's regrets is that he did not start no-till farming sooner. To register for the VANTAGE Winter Conference scheduled for Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds, please visit https://www.virginianotill.com/winter-conference. You will benefit from hearing Dr. Ray Weil, James Hoorman, and the panel discussions with farmers.     We can all be 4 The Soil, for the future! Here is how with four principles:1) Keep the soil covered -- with living plants and residue. Cover crops are our friends and allies; avoid leaving soil bare.2) Minimize soil disturbance -- Practice no-till or gentle tillage as much as possible in your field or garden.3) Maximize living roots -- for the longest time to improve biodiversity, soil structure, and life in the soil.4) Energize with diversity -- aboveground and belowground with high-quality food for soil and plants, and integration of livestock on cropland. If you are interested in art and framing the 4 The Soil posters for your office or home, the 16” by 20” posters are available for purchase and printing as single posters or a set of five posters.If you have questions about soil and water conservation practices, soil health principles, and starting your journey to restore the life in your soil, call or visit a USDA Service Center, a Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District office, or your local Virginia Cooperative Extension office.  4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today's program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.

Welcome to episode 343 of Growers Daily! We cover: spring broccoli and the risks of lawn clippings.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 342 of Growers Daily! We cover: hobby farming but literally, we are taking a WILD question about composting, and it's feedback friday.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 341 of Growers Daily! We cover: Working on a farm, about remediating the soil of chemicals with plants, and resources for midsize farms. We are a Non-Profit! 

In this episode, Kyle and Stuart are joined by a panel of farmers to discuss no-till and other practices which can be applied to create maximum benefit in an arable context.The panel explore why adopting one regenerative practice in isolation is rarely enough to deliver real soil health, resilience, or carbon outcomes.This podcast is brought to you by Regenerate Outcomes, which works with farmers to grow profits and improve crop and livestock performance by building healthy soil.We also baseline and measure soil carbon to generate carbon credits which our members can retain or sell for additional revenue.All of our services are provided at no upfront cost.To find out more go to www.regenerateoutcomes.co.uk

Welcome to episode 340 of Growers Daily! We cover: Back in November, Hannah and I headed to Columbia South Carolina for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Sustainable Agriculture conference.  I recorded my talk on Maintaining Living Soils and Applying the Three Principles of Soil Health. Enjoy! We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 339 of Growers Daily! We cover: the many species of HUMANS who once walked the earth together, valuing your labor, and I'm gonna bring you along while I start some seeds.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 338 of Growers Daily! We cover: spinach from seed to table, and taking a quick question about grants for market gardeners. We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 337 of Growers Daily! We cover: water filtration for municipal water, self sustaining farms, and it's feedback friday!  We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 336 of Growers Daily! We cover: starting market gardens and finding customers, balancing soil disturbance and cover crops, and stretching them muscles so you don't hurt yourselves. We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 335 of Growers Daily! We cover: your spring prep questions-LIVE! We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 334 of Growers Daily! We cover: what to do if you can't trust your local mulch options, harvest bins, and some takeaways from the oak conference. We are a Non-Profit! 

On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Martin-Till, Leopold Conservation Award recipient Jim Hershey shares some of his latest conservation tips and tricks from his Elizabethtown, Pa., farm. Fellow no-tiller Joseph Kern describes how planting green has transformed his operation in Mariah Hill, Ind.

Welcome to episode 328 of Growers Daily! We cover: shallots in all their lovely entirety, plus earwigs—good, bad? We'll see.  We are a Non-Profit! 

In Sauk County, Roger Bindl farms about 300 acres of corn, soybeans, triticale, cover crops and rotationally grazes about 50 head of beef cattle. The owner and operator of RB Farms has been recognized for his conservation efforts. He sat down and told us about some of the practices he has seen success with on his operation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to episode 327 of Growers Daily! We cover: where the microbes go in winter, what happened when we started telling time(hint: it kind of started telling us) and it's feedback friday! We are a Non-Profit! 

In the latest edition of the No-Till Farmer podcast — brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, No-Till Farmer President and CEO Mike Lessiter caught up with Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Executive Director of the Modern Ag Alliance, following her TED TALK-style presentation at the 2026 National No-Tillage Conference in St. Louis. Burns-Thompson discusses the work being done to protect farmers' choices in crop protection tools, reflects on her ag journey and dives deeper into the important role everyone in conservation agriculture plays and much more.

Welcome to episode 326 of Growers Daily! We cover: checking in on KNF and JADAM, we ask if magnetizing irrigation water works, and we take a question about too much mulch on garlic. Is it a thing? We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 325 of Growers Daily! We cover: today we are chatting with Keenan McVey of Blue Goose Farm in Ontario Canada. Keenan, along with his wife Ashley, run this small farm and along with it a really interesting, in-town Farm Store that is a little different from what you might think of as a farm store and has proved to be an invaluable marketing option for them. Keenan's roots are in the culinary world, and the farm was also started with another chef from the area some of you may know, named Matty Matheson (of the excellent show The Bear). Keenan tells us that story as well as helps detail the technical stuff about how the gardens were created and how they are maintained. We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 324 of Growers Daily! We cover: wetlands and agriculture going fisticuffs (but not really), using legumes to fertilize heavy feeders (?), and I will break down my favorite garden hoes (in my context). We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 321 of Growers Daily! We cover: We are talking about alfalfa pellets, plastic mesh inside your sod, Stink bugs infestations, sanitizers in wash water, should I swap my tractor for a walk-behind, and a small fruit conundrum, SO MANY topics! We are a Non-Profit! 

Welcome to episode 319 of Growers Daily! We cover: if you need grow lights or heat lamps (and what the pros use for their starts), we discuss newspaper as a mulch or assistant mulch, and we'll go out to the field and do a little soil-block-a-long.  We are a Non-Profit! 

Flag Hill Distillery and Winery (Lee, NH) WF082 Join me as I continue the Great 48 Tour across New England, with a scenic stop at the Flag Hill Distillery and Winery. Originally hired as a distiller, Brian Ferguson had thoughts of going back to his native Pennsylvania to make whiskey. Then the owner made him an excellent offer to stay and take over Flag Hill. It's a unique story and we'll dive into it. We'll also talk about some of the projects he's got going on. We'll learn what Heavy Rum and Breakfast Bourbon are, learn about the distillery's grain growing practices, and how the winery fits into whiskey tastings. There will be a photo from my visit to Flag Hill in my upcoming book Whiskey Lore's Travel Guide to Experiencing American Whiskey. It's quintessential New England.

Welcome to episode 311 of Growers Daily! We cover: the great onion roundup of 2026! We are a Non-Profit! 

No-till can work in a regenerative system, but the practice alone doesn't necessarily lead to healthier soil

Welcome to episode 306 of Growers Daily! We cover: straw mulch leveled up, tannins in the ground water, and scams. Literally scams.  We are a Non-Profit! 

As time has marched on, the future of Conservation Agriculture rests with the tribal knowledge of those who've made the transition work – and who is willing to share it.

This is a short-form episode featuring Natalie Sturm, pulled from our recent interview and focused on one of the most important—and often overlooked—drivers of soil health: crop rotations.We're launching these short-form episodes to better serve our audience. Instead of listening to a full 60–90 minute conversation, you can now jump straight into the most valuable insights—practical, research-backed takeaways you can apply immediately.In this segment, Natalie explains why the tillage vs. no-till debate misses the bigger picture. Drawing from her research at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm, she shares how two side-by-side no-till fields—managed with the same equipment and soil type—can perform completely differently based on rotation history alone. The difference shows up not just in yields, but in soil structure, organic matter, and resilience.For the full interview with Natalie, please stream the long-form episode here.Natalie Sturm didn't grow up in agriculture—she's originally from suburban Chicago. Her early concern for climate, biodiversity, and human health led her to Montana State University, where she earned a B.S. in Agroecology through the Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems program.She went on to complete her M.S. at South Dakota State University, studying long-term no-till crop rotations at Dakota Lakes Research Farm. Her thesis demonstrated that rotation diversity, small grains, cover crops, and livestock are key to improving soil quality and yields—not just no-till.Natalie is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Washington State University, where she studies the effects of cropping systems on soil compaction in the Palouse region. In 2025, she will return to Dakota Lakes as its new Research Farm Manager.

As a follow up to our last podcast talking about the Precision Farming Dealer Summit, we've got Technology Editor Noah Newman back with us. Noah is also heading up the 34th Annual National No-Tillage Conference, which kicks off on January 6, 2026, following the conclusion of PFDS. He joins us to share some highlights of the conference — including some exciting, new and outside the box sessions that were added to the program this year.

Guest: Natalie SturmHosts: Dr. Buz Kloot and Dr. Gabe KenneRunning time: 62 mins“We could take a shovel, and shovel up some soil in one field, and then just go across the dirt road, and the soils would look completely different... it kind of blew my mind that the only difference between those two fields was the crop rotation they had been under for the past 20 to 30 years.”—Natalie SturmEpisode Summary:Natalie Sturm is a rising voice in cropping systems and soil health. She joins us to reframe the tillage conversation—not as a binary between conventional and no-till, but as part of a broader system that includes crop rotation, residue management, livestock integration, and long-term soil function. Drawing on her M.S. research at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm, Natalie shares insights about why no-till alone isn't enough and how thoughtful rotation design can drive both soil quality and profitability.We talk about:Why two side-by-side no-till fields can look dramatically differentHow biomass, not just crop diversity, builds better soilsThe drought resilience of long rotationsHow longer rotations can reduce herbicide and pesticide useThe economics of dryland vs. irrigated systemsPractical tips for transitioning into more resilient systems, one step at a timeNatalie's journey from suburban Chicago to the helm of Dakota LakesFeatured Guest Bio:Natalie Sturm didn't grow up in agriculture—she's originally from suburban Chicago. Her passion for climate, biodiversity, and human health led her to Montana State University, where she earned a B.S. in Agroecology. She then completed her M.S. at South Dakota State University studying long-term no-till crop rotations at Dakota Lakes Research Farm. Natalie is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Washington State University on the effects of cropping systems on soil compaction in the Palouse region. In 2026, she will return to Dakota Lakes as its new research farm manager.

Welcome to episode 295 of Growers Daily! We cover: my microscopes and dry farming AND it's feedback friday.  We are a Non-Profit! 

On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Bio Till Cover Crops, Austin, Minn., no-tiller and Leopold Conservation Award recipient Tom Cotter shares the building blocks of his no-till system. Hickory, N.C., no-tiller Russell Hedrick reveals results from his on-farm biologicals trials and also details the program he uses to test new products.

On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Bio Till Cover Crops, we head inside Jimmy and Andy Gray's Leopold Conservation Award-winning operation in Stony Point, N.C. Jon Stevens takes us along for the ride as he harvests a no-tilled corn-on-corn field in the challenging soils of Rock Creek, Minn.

In this episode, Dr. Gabriel Kenne of the University of South Carolina talks about the incremental changes as a farm takes steps towards becoming no-till.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!   Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:  Instagram  Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:  Carrot Cashflow  Farm Small Farm Smart  Farm Small Farm Smart Daily  The Growing Microgreens Podcast  The Urban Farmer Podcast  The Rookie Farmer Podcast  In Search of Soil Podcast Check out Diego's books:  Sell Everything You Grow on Amazon   Ready Farmer One on Amazon **** Modern Grower and Diego Footer participate in the Amazon Services LLC. Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

In this episode, Dr. Gabriel Kenne of the University of South Carolina talks about the incremental changes as a farm takes steps towards becoming no-till.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!   Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:  Instagram  Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:  Carrot Cashflow  Farm Small Farm Smart  Farm Small Farm Smart Daily  The Growing Microgreens Podcast  The Urban Farmer Podcast  The Rookie Farmer Podcast  In Search of Soil Podcast Check out Diego's books:  Sell Everything You Grow on Amazon   Ready Farmer One on Amazon **** Modern Grower and Diego Footer participate in the Amazon Services LLC. Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Welcome to episode 272 of Growers Daily! We cover: small farming versus disasters, cardboard as a mulch, and when what you do looks bananas to your neighbors.  We are a Non-Profit!